Second Round of the Interclub Trophy

A good night for the BPS at the Interclub on Saturday 14th Novemebr at the Eldwick Memorial in Bingley. We came second with 92, one point behind the winers Leeds Coop with 93. Congratulations to Michael Myers for his 'Young Blackbird after Fledging' which received 20 as did Brian Shackleton's 'Kingfisher' . Sandra Cockayne brilliantly scored 18 for 'Jens Vought Leading the Race Through Swaledale' (Tour de France) and 19 for 'Golden Rolling Morning Mist' (which features in the rolling header for the web site under another alias). Andrew Holland's Saltaire received a disappointing 15. The judge did not like the sky, apparently!

First Print Competition Meeting

Our first competition evening for prints, on 13 November, was certainly eventful! Our judges for the evening were Helen and Roger Smith from Cleckheaton.

The first competition judged was the Greenwood Trophy, an open competition for novices. This was won by Balwinder Kaur with her striking landscape 'Shimpla Mountains'. Both second and third places were taken by David Hopkinson with his prints 'A Steep Descent' and 'Lincoln Cathedral, Angel Chair to East Window' respectively.

The second competition was the Norman Stow Trophy for Applied prints. Since the judges had judged the entries against the current YPU rules for 'Applied', which covers 'Record' and 'Natural History' but omits the 'Photo Travel' category included in the BPS rules, 11 of the 39 prints were excluded from the competition. It was decided to let that decision stand rather than have the prints re-assessed on the spot so that the rejected prints can be re-used in future competitions.

Classic Composition and More

Thursday’s 6th. November meeting saw presentations by three of the Society’s most experienced members.

The evening’s headline act was Don Crabtree on composing our photos. Don brought a lifetime of expertise not only in the field of photography but also from his vast experience as an accomplished oil and watercolour artist.

Don began by laying out some of the universal “rules” of composition, covering the Golden Mean, Leading Lines, Horizon placement, Picture Balance, and Framing.

Don demonstrated these principles with diagrams drawn on ProAm envelopes (now charged at a £1 each, so take them back and avoid the charge) and reinforced these with some stunning examples of photographs from his own outstanding photographic archive.

What I Use

'What I use' was about more than cameras. Several members told us about their own introductions to, and motivations for entering, the world of photography. Then about the cameras they began with and how and why they moved on to better kit, relating it to the type of photography they were interested in or became involved with. But we also heard about accessories, especially tripods, and there was a fairly detailed exploration into the science of camera bags.

Critique Evening

On 9 October, members were invited to bring their images for a Critique Evening so that other members could comment on the work to try and give a varied and positive indication of possible improvements and subjectiveness.

Both senior members and new members were not backword with their comments with some hardy but constructive discussion on some images. However the night came to an end without the President Tom having to intervene.

Photowalk 1 - Bolling Hall

A glimmer of Autumn sunshine greeted the arrival of our select group to the Bolling Hall Museum in Bradford on Saturday 4th October.

This, our first 'Photo Walk', was not an energetic affair -we just pottered round the museum for two hours. The challenges were more on the photographic side with plenty of dark corners full of interesting objects. However Don was on hand with advice on everything from angles to exposures and the museum were happy to let us use tripods.

Automotive & Glamour

On Thursdays 25 sept.the lecturer was Andrew Woolley , who is an all round photographic professional , his subjects vary from weddings to racing cars, his style is outspoken and robust, he brought along a number of framed enlargments in black and white which were quite impressive, he also told a few anecdotes, about his travels abroad, at 830 pm we had a snack break,in which food and drinks were provided by our master chef, Rais Hasan, which was very good.
Andy invited us to an evening at his studio in Rawdon. He would organise a model for the evening - if any member is interested can they please contact Peter Sykes as soon as possible.
The meeting was chaired by Kath Bonson, and Don Crabtree gave a short vote of thanks, the attendance was around 30 members, and concluded about 9 30 pm.

Training Evening - Basic Principles

Our first Training Evening on 11th September was entitled 'Basic Principles'.

Although setting out the sort of basic photographic principles a beginner would need - aperture / shutter speed / ISO - the information went well beyond the basics. In his talk, Paul explained the use of filters, depth of field and post-processing ranging onwards to the choice of cameras and lenses.

We're Off Again!

The first meeting of the new session took place on Thursday 4th September. There was a good turnout of members and an encouraging number of prospective members also came along -a great buzz to start the 2014-15 meetings.

Exhibition in Shipley Library

The Society's annual exhibition was held in the exhibition space of Shipley Library between 1st and 12th July. With 106 framed images hung by 22 members, the exhibition displayed the range of interests and talents of our members very well.